Chris Godwin defends Baker Mayfield after C.J. Gardner-Johnson trash talk

As the Tampa Bay Buccaneers prepare for a Divisional Round showdown in Motown, their week has been dominated by C.J. Gardner-Johnson kicking up some dust.

There's an argument to be made that Antoine Winfield fired the first shots of the trash talk war, but Gardner-Johnson truly got the ball rolling when he took a shot at Baker Mayfield on Wednesday. The Lions safety was giving Mike Evans and Chris Godwin their flowers but might have been doing so in order to throw Baker under the bus.

“[The Rams] group probably is one of the better groups we done faced all year, besides that Tampa group,” Gardner-Johnson said. “If you give that Tampa group a good quarterback, that’s a great group. Evans, Godwin, (Russell) Gage, that’s a great group. I played against them for real.”

Baker took it in stride, responding with a hilarious comeback but that wasn't the end of things. Gardner-Johnson tweeted, then deleted, more trash talk, and now other members of the Bucs locker room are getting involved.

Chris Godwin defends Baker Mayfield, claps back at C.J. Gardner-Johnson

While speaking to the media this week, Chris Godwin backed up his quarterback and clapped back at Gardner-Johnson over the bulletin board material he gifted the Bucs. Rather than roll around in the mud and sling insults, Godwin used it as a chance to highlight how much Baker has meant to the guys in the locker room this season.

"I mean, I don't have too much of a response to it because I think it would be surprising if it wasn't coming from somebody that likes to talk trash," Godwin said. "That's the kind of person that he is, that's how he gets himself fired up for games so it's not very like surprising to know out of the guys on the team that are going to say something, it's going to be him."

We've heard Bucs leaders like Tristan Wirfs and others throw their support behind Baker throughout the year, with decision-makers like Jason Licht and Todd Bowles backing him as well.

This is a growing theme with Baker and the Bucs. One of the important variables being tossed around by NFL insiders when it comes to a potential deal for Mayfield in the offseason is how much he means to his teammates and how they're all completely bought in on him as a leader.

Godwin's quote is just further proof of that.

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